Attraction & Online Dating

Attraction

A new feature of The Sims 3 is attraction, which is available with the latest patch regardless of whether you have Seasons installed. It's a small mechanic, but it can give your single Sims a romantic target in case you have no other plans.

Simply put, when any unrelated Sim is near your active Sims, you might see a push notification of the visitor being attracted to your Sim. As you can see in the screen shot here, a townie is attracted to Pete simply because she caught him studying a new skill. Attraction can occur for any number of reasons, though you'll likely see it most often when Sims learn new skills.

When there is attraction between two Sims, each gets a buff if they're in the same room together. Also, all Romantic-type social interactions between the two have a slightly higher chance of succeeeding, and the relationship score between the two will climb slightly faster. The bonus stacks with anything else going on with your Sim, so a high Charisma skill or several of the Lifetime Rewards will increase it even faster.

Attraction has the side-effect of motivating the townies to ask your Sims out on dates somewhat frequently. Other Sims don't respect your vows, so you may get a lot of calls asking your Sims on a date even if they're married. There is no way to turn it off (unlike opportunities), so it might get a little annoying if your Sims have particularly active social lives.

Attraction is subject to the same rules as other relationships when considering whether men or women hit on any particular Sim. It seems that for attraction, Sims tend to prefer heterosexuality, but it's not a guarantee based on your Sims' hidden sexual preference numbers.

Online Dating

With all this attraction, new babies, and other lovey-dovey nonsense happening around the Falkon Towers, Becki has decided she wants to try discovering what these human emotions are like as well. Not willing to go out and actually talk to other life forms outside of her job, Becki decides to set up a dating profile for the Internet.

This is a new feature beginning with The Sims 3 Seasons and is free for all adult Sims. Simply go to a computer, then interact with it and choose "Online Dating...," then "Create Profile." The default screen shows the Sim's actual picture, traits, favorites, and body type, which is how other Sims will find them.

That is, if you want that to be the case. Becki doesn't know love but she does feel shame, so she decides to change her profile a little bit... you know, just a harmless revisionist history for her body and mind. The picture is fixed, but the traits can be altered if you so desire. Becki gets rid of her Hydrophobic trait in favor of Good, and trades Party Animal in favor of Flirty. She also sets her body type to "Slim," reasoning that she's just a SimBot and there's not an ounce of body fat on her!

With her profile created, she decides to check out some of the eligible Sims around town. This is also achieved at a computer by using the interaction "Online Dating...," which now features more commands now that Becki's profile is created. She can edit or remove her profile entirely if she changes her mind, and she can check her messages for any potential mates every day or so.

For now, Becki chooses "Browse Profiles." She's chooses her prefered gender from the top two buttons, and we get a scroll box with everyone who is also signed up with the site. Hunter looks like a winner (or at least the least drugged-out), so she clicks his picture.

This brings up Hunter's profile, including his traits and favorites. Like Becki, he could be lying, but it would be a sad Sim world if we were so cynical that we just assumed nobody could tell the truth. Becki isn't that cynical with life (at least not yet), so she clicks the "Send Message!" button underneath his traits. We don't get to select what precisely the message says, but it's a way for Hunter to know that Becki is interested in him.

A day passes, and Becki goes to work like normal. Pyro, meanwhile, divorces Asewuk and kicks her and their Alien baby out of the Towers because they "fulfilled their purpose." Becki doesn't know what that meant but hopes she doesn't end up like those two, so she goes to the computer and selects the "Check Messages" interaction (from the "Online Dating..." category).

This will list anyone who has contacted her. Sometimes it doesn't take any effort; we can see here that Tom and Odin both contacted Becki without her making the first move. But she wanted Hunter, and Hunter indeed has (in his own way) said that they just might be compatible! Becki wants to keep her options open, so she clicks the "Accept Request" button next to Hunter's message but chooses not to delete the other two for now.

Accepting the request simply adds the target as a contact in your Sim's relationship panel. Practically speaking, this means Becki can immediately call Hunter up and start chatting the night away. Nothing is guaranteed; he won't immediately come rusing over even if she invites him over, since their relationship score is still +0.

Becki in fact chats with him online and gives him a call the next day. Their relationship starts to form, and it isn't long before Hunter is willing to meet Becki in person. She uses her cell phone to arrange a date, using the "Invite Out" command and targeting the Winter Festival.

When Hunter meets Becki for the first time, there is a little mystery involved due to the fact that she lied on her dating profile. As you can see from the push notification though, Hunter is suitably impressed and interested. The level of how much you lied on your profile (if you lied at all) can severely negatively impact your starting relationship. This mainly only applies when you swapped a trait for its opposite, like Family-Oriented for Commitment Issues. Becki did no such thing with Hunter, so he didn't immediately reject her.

In fact, things are going pretty well for Becki and Hunter. They have a good time at the Winter Festival, and it's the start of a fairly healthy relationship... one that involves a paranoid who lives in a bomb shelter and a SimBot, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.